Dozens of people gathered outside Sarah T. Reed High School to protest its closure.

“There's a lot of talk about closing and phasing out and the community really doesn't know what's happening,” said parent Cristiane Wjingaarde.

Wjingaarde lives just a stone's throw from Sarah T. Reed Sr. High on Bichoud Boulevard, where she'd like to send her daughter. Instead, the teen catches three public buses each day to attend school outside the neighborhood.

“They're telling us it's not closing, but what they're doing is showing us it is closing. So we want to ask the (Orleans Parish School Board) to come and support us to come out and say, ‘Hey, we want it back under local control,’” said Wjingaarde.

Before Hurricane Katrina, Reed was run by the Orleans Parish School Board. After Katrina, the Recovery School District took it over. Last year, students grades 9-12 attended Reed. This year, only 11th and 12th graders attended Reed, and next year just seniors will attend Reed.

"We don't want our school to be phased out like Kennedy, like Abramson, like Douglas,” said Reed alumnus Tayla Braddy.

A growing list of schools have been taken over by charter operators that promise to raise the bar at low-performing high schools.

“It's failing because it hasn't been invested in,” VAYLA member Chris Sang said.

VAYLA is a community organization that's taken on the cause of keeping the school an open option.

“Not just for this generation but for generations to come,” Sang said. “And they don't have to go hours away and they can be right here where their families are."